Briefing Paper June 2017 BEYOND THE ‘WILD WEST’ The Gold Rush in Northern Niger Mathieu Pellerin Beyond the ‘Wild West’ 1 Credits and contributors Series editor: Matt Johnson About the author ([email protected]) Mathieu Pellerin is an Associate Researcher for the Africa Programme at the Institut Copy-editor: Alex Potter français des relations internationales and an expert on political and security issues ([email protected]) in the Sahel and Maghreb regions. As part of his research and consultancy for both Proofreader: Stephanie Huitson national and international organizations he regularly travels to Mali, Niger, Burkina ([email protected]) Faso, and Mauritania, as well as Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco. Since June 2015 he has also been Special Adviser on religious dialogue for the Centre for Humanitarian Cartography: Jillian Luff Dialogue. He has two master’s degrees (in Political Science and Economic Sciences), (www.mapgrafix.com) and currently teaches on the crisis in the Sahel at Sciences Po in Lille. Design and layout: Rick Jones ([email protected]) Acknowledgements The author would like to extend his sincere thanks to Dr Ines Kohl and Savannah de Tessières for their insightful peer reviews. Matt Johnson and Alex Potter also have to be thanked for their checking and editing work. Front cover photo A miner reaches for his metal detector in the Djado region, northern Niger. Source: Djibo Issifou, 2016. 2 SANA Briefing Paper June 2017 Overview Introduction One of the many stories recounting how This Briefing Paper examines how the gold rush in northern gold mining began in northern Niger in Niger has affected the security, political, and socio-economic April 2014 tells of a Tubu camel herder dynamics of this sensitive region. The first part discusses the from Libya who found a heavy stone in the desert that someone in Chirfa recog- mechanics of the gold rush, which started in 2014: the nature nized as gold-bearing rock. The people of of the mining sites, the various participants, and the (limited) Chirfa and neighbouring Seguedine then went into the desert of Djado to look for role of the state in the region. The second part focuses on the more gold, which they found in huge effects of the gold rush on northern Niger: increased local quantities.1 Shortly after the findings in wealth and new elites on the one hand, more banditry and Djado, gold was also found in quantity in the Tchibarakaten region, as well as in arms trafficking on the other. It notes, however, that there is several other nearby locations. little evidence of gold mining providing material or financial The discovery of what is locally called support to extremist groups. And while the wealth of some a ‘gift of God’ has transformed this remote part of Niger. In a short period, the area’s miners and local businesspeople who transport miners and population, which was about 800 before supply them with necessities increased, the local economic the discovery, grew to 40,000, and the upturn did not spread to the national economy. The paper con- number of vehicles increased from a hand- ful to nearly 12,000 in 2015.2 And like cludes that future mining will need to industrialize to access the many and varied origin stories of the deposits deeper underground, now that surface gold deposits gold rush, tales abound of the sudden are largely exhausted. This change may result in increased wealth acquired by poor Nigeriens, but behind the success stories the reality is socio-economic and security instability, both in northern Niger more complex.3 and in the wider region. The gold miners who return from Djado or Tchibarakaten describe these areas in terms that evoke the 19th-century US ‘Wild West’ of books and film: a vast, lawless desert controlled by armed men, Key findings where the only aim is to get rich from the gold rush. The international media tell The gold rush in northern Niger involves both foreigners similar stories, but their coverage of the and local notables—including political and military actors gold rush is limited.4 Control of mining who own or control mines—making it a sensitive issue. or related activities by a largely absent state is virtually non-existent.5 The gold rush caused security incidents, including increased This Briefing Paper will explore the banditry, intercommunity rivalries, and occasional tensions gold rush of northern Niger and how it has affected the security, political, and with Algeria. socio-economic dynamics of this sensitive region. It is divided into two sections: Arms trafficking in the region has increased with the open- the first will identify who is involved by ing of the gold mines. This increase is likely to be linked to focusing on the miners, state representa- the area’s new-found wealth, its pervasive insecurity, and tives, and the results of their interactions. the inability of the Nigerien government to adequately police The second part will look at the effects of the gold rush on the region. How has the such a vast region. security situation changed? How has the influx of wealth and people changed the The impact of the gold rush on local society has not made politics and economics of this remote northern Niger fertile ground for recruitment by extremist part of Niger? And do these changes have groups. There is little indication that such groups are pre- potential impacts beyond northern Niger? The Briefing Paper is based on a series sent at the mining sites, though it is possible that mining of 34 interviews held by the author in indirectly provides funding to them. northern Niger and the Nigerien capital, Niamey, in February and May 2016, and The discovery of gold helped to reinvigorate the economy in May 2017.6 Interlocutors included Tubu, in northern Niger, which had been adversely affected by Tuareg, and Hausa gold miners (including border closures and the end of uranium mining. Although mine owners) from Djado and Tchibarakaten, smugglers, and traffickers involved in most miners do not make a profit, the gold rush created gold-mining-related businesses such as important indirect economies. transport, supplying water, and trade.7 Beyond the ‘Wild West’ 3 Further interlocutors include officials in government presence, as well as the fact of local groups or other Nigeriens who the region, members of government, and that for a variety of reasons miners typi- were less heavily armed and worse experts in the capital. Information from cally come for only a few months before equipped. Foreigners are also believed the interviews is supplemented by a leaving (especially in winter),12 the number to be responsible for much of the thefts review of relevant literature and articles of miners in the region at any given time and banditry in the area, adding to their in the local and international press. cannot be accurately calculated.13 unsavoury reputation among the locals.18 It is difficult to estimate the number The miners in Djado of foreign miners at the diggings in early 2017, before their closure. Starting in Beyond the notion of the Despite the transient nature of the miners 2015 there was an influx of miners, some ‘Wild West’ and the huge distances separating the Chadian and others ostensibly Nigerien many mining sites, the general breakdown who are apparently Chadians with new The gold-mining context of actors in the two gold-mining areas can Nigerien identity documents. These In northern Niger lies a narrow strip of be identified with relative confidence. miners were tolerated provided that they gold-mining sites stretching from the Djado contained nearly 60 mining sites. worked for Nigerien interests. In addition, 19 Chadian to the Algerian border. This area The majority of miners there were foreign- Tubu miners from Libya were present, was home to at least 15,000 miners at the ers, mainly from Chad, Sudan, and Libya. while Nigeriens from outside the region beginning of 2017.8 Northern Niger had Among the Chadians, the majority were were also present in numbers, including 14 two main mining areas. The first, concen- members of the Zaghawa and Tubu tribes. Tuaregs from Agadez and others from all 20 trated around Djado and contained about Many Zaghawa miners were officers and over the country. After the diggings were 11,000 miners,9 extended over a huge soldiers of the Chadian army, among whom closed, many miners left but some may 21 area, covering some 350 km north to south were a significant number of deserters have remained. The lack of a meaningful and 180 km east to west.10 Locals believe from a Chadian army unit in Kidal that state presence means that the movements that, before it was closed to individual forms part of the UN Mission in Mali.15 of this array of people and nationalities miners by the Nigerien government in There are, however, indications that are neither properly recorded nor con- April 2017, at least 70 tons of gold were there were fewer Chadian miners in trolled, making the numbers given above found.11 The second main area lies near early 2017 than in the autumn of 2014. only broad estimates based on interviews Tchibarakaten, north of Adrar Bous, close In response to local complaints, Nigerien and anecdotal evidence. to the Algerian border in Agadez Region. authorities deported hundreds of Zaghawas Around 4,000 miners continue to work originating from both Chad and Sudan.16 The miners in Tchibarakaten there. The gold-mining sites in the Djado The reason for the crackdown may have area were more developed than those been the foreign miners’ success. In 2014, The situation is different in Tchibarakaten to that in Djado in that most of the miners around Tchibarakaten.